Wireless power system charges devices up to 20 feet away

A plethora of firms are racing to develop a feasible method for delivering power wirelessly, but thus far the best we’ve managed are short-range standards like Qi and PMA. A company called Energous is on hand at CES with a demo of its new wireless power system known amusingly as WattUp. It uses a mix of Bluetooth and RF to combine the convenience of wireless power with the security of a wireless network. If it all pans out, WattUp could juice up your phone from up to 20 feet (6.1 meters) away.

The heart of WattUp is a hub that’s basically a powerful RF transmitter station. Devices that want to receive power from the hub announce their presence via Bluetooth 4.0. WattUp then uses that connection to direct the wireless power signal to the device. It operates in the same unlicensed spectrum as WiFi, which makes me wonder about possible interference in busy wireless environments. Assuming the connection holds, though, the WattUp signal is absorbed and converted to DC power in the phone or tablet by a receiver chip.

Whenever you’re sending an electromagnetic signal through the air, you have to worry about signal drop-off as dictated by the inverse square law. The gist is that signal strength decreases at a rate equal to the square of the distance. For example, a device twice as far away from a source only gets one-quarter of the energy. Some experiments in long-range wireless power have simply brute forced their way through this problem to the point that they actually heat up the air around the transmitter. WattUp combats this problem with a type of beam-forming technology. That Bluetooth connection is used to focus a tight cone of electromagnetic waves on the target, and it can even track the device and recalibrate as needed. A standard Qi wireless charger is about 90% efficient, but Energous claims it can hit 70% at much greater distances.

Energous also has proprietary technology that can hand off the task of providing power between multiple hubs, just like your phone can transfer from one cell tower to the next to maintain a connection. The intention is to build a WattUp transmitter that is tied into the state of your devices. So when you get home, the system begins charging your phone. When it detects that the phone is full, but maybe your tablet is getting low from an evening of couch computing, it switches automatically to recharging that one. It could also connect to wearable devices or anything else if they have a receiver.

WattUp also takes into account one of the drawbacks of wireless power you don’t usually think about: security. If you’ve got a wireless power base station that can blast energy 20 feet away (improved from 15 feet last year), there could be a lot of devices in range, not all of which are yours. You can secure your wireless network against outside access, so why not your wireless power network? The Bluetooth tether that is used to direct beam-forming can also authenticate devices. WattUp can operate in protected mode where only authorized devices can connect, or in public access mode where anyone with the hardware can soak up some electrons (controlled via an app).

The company hopes to license the technology to device makers soon. The hardware required on the phone side is cheap, so it might gain some traction. However, the energy routers will probably be a substantial investment, especially considering most homes would need more than one.

Actually I think it was J.P. Morgan that pulled his funding, something about not being able to make money from it.

zn

Yeah, Tesla may have been a genius, but unless you got $$$ you ain’t got nothing.

Levi

For a brief time he was worth quite a bit of money:

“As Westinghouse started winning the war, Edison
was forced to merge his company with the newly formed General
Electric Corporation. General Electric would have taken control
of Westinghouse too if it hadn’t been for the generosity of
Tesla. Tesla gave up control of AC patents worth millions of
dollars because he believed that an independent Westinghouse
Company was the only way his AC system would be widely adopted”

My dear fellow, you clipped that quote just one line too short – “This move by Tesla ensured the future of AC, but
left him short of cash to pursue his research in the future.”. This was my point. Telsa had the ideas, but in the end the business of it all did him no favours.

Given the magnitude of his ideas, he probably should have ended up a billionaire. But this was not the case.

bob lebart

“Edison’s thugs”…so true. Tesla was The Man. Edison was a good but lesser intellect, in a gangster’s body.

Marcelo

Tesla was a visionary man, people gave up on him before he finish his work on wireless electricity. Never forget he gave us the AC.

Brian Benghazi Piper

You all seem to forget wireless communication was no were close to what we have now. As a ham radio operator I can tell you these chargers ruin receiver as far as the noise floor goes. I know from experience.

massau

site states :Charges Any Battery-Operated Device That Requires Less Than 10 Watts this the energy in a cone will be rather low and thus safe.

2.4GHz (Unlicensed) for Bluetooth Low Energy communication
5.7-5.8 GHz (Unlicensed Industrial, Scientific & Medical, ISM) band for power transfer
it will give some problems(probably break connection) if you use 5GHz wifi on the device you are charging.

http://www.korioi.net/ Korios

There is some distance between 5 & 5.7 Ghz but this distance might be neutered by the the power signal, which will naturally have to be much stronger.

massau

the 5GHz ISM band is the 5.7GHz to 5.8GHz band :). so they emmit in the same frequency.

SHunter

It worked fine. The demo was amazing.

Guest

more cancer! yes I want one!
enjoy your smartphones retarded people.

matthew Adams

Enjoy your computer and electricy. Those are just as bad. ;) The only way to remove yourself from it is a cave. Get to it.

Guest

still waaay less dangerous on health than this…

Tom

The only way this could give you cancer is if you ate it or smoked it.

Assuming you can accomplish avoiding those two things, you should be okay.

dc

cave’s are full of radon gas.

http://www.korioi.net/ Korios

This freaking radiation is everywhere, in caves, underground, in space.. Maybe we should all live inside Faraday cages – wearing tin foil caps to be compatible.

http://www.funstufftosee.com/ Dozerman

Shhh… Don’t tell him that! He won’t leave otherwise!

http://www.funstufftosee.com/ Dozerman

@bertgoz:disqus
@disqus_14WDawAkD1:disqus

5Ghz is an easily stopped frequency. At 5Ghz, the signal probably wouldn’t deliver any energy past your epidermis, although I haven’t looked at any numbers as to how deep it could actually go.

Levi

While 5Ghz is easily stopped it can most likely get through your epidermis, if it couldn’t I don’t think 802.11a would have been so bad on pacemakers. I could easily be wrong though…

http://www.funstufftosee.com/ Dozerman

“Bad on pacemakers”

That was a thing? I didn’t know. Were there actually medical cases where people had issues or were there just concerned people?

Levi

While I couldn’t find any specific cases (I honestly didn’t go past the first page on google) warnings can be found from device manufacturers on older devices like this a/b/g adapter by Sony: https://docs.sony.com/release/PCWAC800S_RTF.pdf.

Many implanted devices are vulnerable to wireless interference, back in 2011 (I think) Barnaby Jack demonstrated how implanted insulin pumps could be wirelessly triggered at up to 300 feet to dispense their entire load of insulin (a fatal dosage).

http://www.funstufftosee.com/ Dozerman

Hmm… It’s hard to really draw any conclusions on this. I guess I just need to hold my phone next to my chest, put my back to my router and see if I get signal. If so, myth busted!

SHunter

This was proven false. The technology requires it to reflect off of objects as much as possible. This is technically why its safer than your cell phone; the waves don’t penetrate.

Koltin Kosik-Harvey

At that intensity it doesn’t move that many particles in your body. all it would accelerate is loose electrons (thats how antennas work) and light molecules water and thats about it.

Now if you stuck your head in a 1000 watt microwave (same frequency but larger intensity) you well boil the water at a fast rate, boiling your blood.

wifi is like half a watt. that isn’t boiling shit. its more dangerous to go outside in plus 10 weather.

Michael

the whole concept is stupid if you asked me, I mean why all the struggle with this new technology that offers a 20 feet “6 meters” away the wall socket?
I mean it’s still indoor technology, and we can move our heavy asses to the nearest wall socket to charge our shit.
also consider the energy loss that will happen with it too.
it’s just a “show of” technology, not a practical one.
it’s one of those technologies that say “see guys we can do this”, and nothing more.
and I agree with “Guest”, sometimes you just need to add one more useless device to start the shitty things to happen to you, I don’t mean extreme cases like cancer, but sometimes a dizzy feeling will be not acceptable for most people.
don’t let those companies and their gangs fools you with their media and false claims, they don’t give a shit about you or me or anyone, all they want is more money provided by useless technologies like this one.

Marc Guillot

Plenty of times this isn’t as easy as move our heavy asses to the nearest wall socket. Do you always carry your charging cable with you ?.

Tom

I see applications. It would save me having to hunt for cables I keep losing, or having to tie my device to a small radius around a wall socket if I need to use it while charging.

It would also mitigate the frequent times my device runs flat without me noticing and is then unavailable when I need it.

Not to mention the convenience/laziness factor you just snorted at. Are you crazy? Do you know how much people LOVE things that enable laziness? Why do you think televisions come with remote controls? What do you think dishwashers, washing machines and vacuum cleaners are for?

Also the link between electromagnetic radiation and health effects is demonstrably false. Let’s not start a debate about that BS.

SHunter

Its called moving technology forward. Did you say the same thing with candles when they were the only source of light until the invention of the powered light bulb?

Magnus Blomberg

I’m not saying this is dangerous however for those who think wi-fi or mobile phones could be dangerous this is a nightmare. Wi-Fi and phones form non directional beams in the milliwatt range. This is supposed to deliver 10W. That is four orders of magnitude or 10000 times of a difference!

The beam forming does not help if you pass between the sender and receiver at least 10W worth of energy has to pass through your body. How much is absorbed and how much damage that energy can do I will say nothing about but it will could be thouends of times more damaging than a mobile phone.

Depending on frequency the radiowaves will be absorbed at differnet depths or even pass through. If absorbed they will at least heat the tissue. If all is absorbed by the skin, a tight beam will heat a small volume and it might even become hot, think 10W incandessent lightbulb under your skinn. Not dangerous if you move out of the way when it starts to burn but not comfortable either.

Koltin Kosik-Harvey

Microwave don’t have enough energy to do “damage”. This is why with UV you need protection. At those high frequencies photons have enough energy to ionize molecules.

With microwaves, the can only either a) go around the body like wifi does through doors and cracks. b) go through without collision ( photons have a diameter of plank length .) or c) collide with a particule.

If there’s a collision there’s only enough energy to accelerate low mass molecules like water or H2. everything else is too heavy to accelerate. more collisions( higher wattage), higher the temp.

Since electrons are light, electrons are accelerated too, but only the loose ones found in conducting materials.

The only danger in microwaves is heat, that’s it. hell high frequency microwaves is infrared which is produced by vibrating charged particles proportional tempture. Guess we are fucked because simply being hot releases more energy then that charger.

Magnus Blomberg

I agree completely with you. I do not think that individual photons of this frequency can do any damage to the individual molecules of our bodies.

However if enough heat is generated in a small enough volume the temperture could rise and that could do damage.

Since the photons can be considered to have some form of random distribution in the beam, a very small volume could possibly temporarily be heated enough to be damaged.

I think the probability is verry verry low but maby it is possible that enough heat can be generated in a small enough volume to damage a single protein molecule or even some DNA and cause a mutation leading to cancer.

Even if no molecular damage is ever done I do not like the possibility of uncomfortable burns to what ever part of my body that happens to be between the charger and close to my charging phone. 10W if absorbed and turned into heat in a small volume is enough for uncomfortable temperatures.

To deliver energy at these levels they should us frequencies that pass through our bodies and is not absorbed.

The problem with lower frequencies that can do that is that they requier larger antennas to be picked up by the charging unit and the spectrum might already be allocated for other purposes.

Tom

It’s a very good discussion and you raise some interesting points, but quite frankly, you have nothing to worry about. There is no possibility of localised heat damage from a focused electromagnetic beam from a 10W source. You will feel nothing.

You must consider the nicroscopic scale on which you are talking about heat transfer. Could localised heating damage DNA? I don’t see why not, but do you know how difficult it would be to do that at those scales? The conductivity of heat at those molecular scales is almost instantaneous. There is no time for heat to build up from excitation of water molecules adjacent to DNA structures. In an instant, the energy is dissipated among the surrounding molecules which were still in a low energy state. And the energy levels are vanishingly small even for molecules like DNA.

You may then ask, well how come microwaves work? The reason a microwave oven works is because it’s not an errant source of microwaves, but a high intensity continual bombardment over a large area. The same thing is happening at the molecular scale, but there is successful heating simply because the energy applied is so high compared to the energy lost through conduction and radiation. So the energy imparted to individual water molecules is still dissipating to their neighbours instantly and basically insignificant, but because this is happening everywhere at once, and at very high intensity, the net energy of the molecules begins to rise.

Magnus Blomberg

I completely agree. You exlained it very nicely. As you say the conduction would spread any localised heat on the molecular scale in an instant.

I have also taken the time to go to Energous website and from it I gather that there is no beamforming so since the radiowaves will be coming from all directions there is no small volume that could absorb 10W and turn it into heat.

It also seams that the maximum power that can be harvested is about 4W per unit. I’m a bit confused because they state that this is enough to charge as fast as if connected to an outlet or an usb adapter but USB is rated at 1A at 5V and that equals 5W if I’m not mistaken. 4W is only 80% of that.

An iPad charger I think goes beyond the USB spec and can provide 2A at 5V or 10W. The website only claims that their product target smartphones, phablets and “small tablets” so maby the 10W iPad is not considered small. I do not know the power rating of the iPad mini.

bertgoz

I think you got confused. The waves come from all angles so a pocket of energy is formed where the receiver is located. That means that yes 4/10W are concentrated in a very small volume.

Say that you move around while your phone is charging at that pocket of energy ends up pointing at you. Or even worse, imagine your phone is in your pocket very close to your body and that the pocket of energy is actually form very close to your skin or even in its surface.

This technology, it is not safe at all

Magnus Blomberg

It would be even worse if a beam was formed to transmitt all the energy. Then all energy would come from the same angle and be distributed in an even smaller volume. This was my initial thought.

If no beam is formed and enegy comes to the phone from all angles most of the energy will still come from the angle of the direct path to the transmitter since the reflected paths are a lot longer and the signal weakened. In this case however I wonder how much is the total emitted power of the transmitter? It has to be whole lot more then 10W and if you are really close to it almost all emitted power will have to go through you/be absorbed by you.

What is this talk of “energy pockets”. The energy is ither formed into beams to increase efficiency. Get the waves from the transmitter to the receiver or you do not use beams and the waves are bounced around everywhere and absorbed by the first resonant thing in their paths be it a human body or an antenna. Right?

To create constructive interference I imagine you either need to gather information of the geometry of the room and position of the receiver or vary the beams and get feadback from the receiver so you know when you have the optimal interference pattern at the receiver.

massau

the mircowave is a special setup. it pumps a 1000 W wat in int but the microwave has been shaped to resonance at the frequency this will increase the local peak power to an even higher value than what you pump into it.assuming it doesn’t all get absorbed in the first pass through.

its a bit like a laser.

Zunalter

Wow, I didn’t think that an internet tech site was a place frequented by the Amish.

bertgoz

say that beam goes through living tissue. Then what?
This technology is anything but secure

Koltin Kosik-Harvey

what beam? take a look at your router. like light is shooting photons in all directions. Those photons have a energy related to its frequency which is same as wifi in this case 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

Your microwave is the same thing but it shoots a lot of these photons. About a KWH of them.

A microwave at 5GHz at most is able to accelerate a water molecule, not much heavier than that…so that leaves for electrons which is the prime focus for accelerating.

Lets compare this to light. the colour green is about 5×10^14 Hz. Thats about 10000 more energy than a microwave. In fact the colour green can give you skin cancer.

Its all based on the Wattage.

A microwave well kill you because it uses a lot of power and focuses the photons onto a point. a wifi router uses low power and shoots photons in all directions which is what the sun does aswell.

If you took a 1000W laser of the colour green and pointed it at something, that will CUT THAT SHIT IN HALF.

Now lets talk about this tech. it takes the idea of a router and the microwave and puts them together in way. Low wattage, but focused at a point. If you walked by this, the wattage difference wouldn’t be big enough to do anything more then wifi already does. Loose electrons well accelerate, and selected water molecules well collide with photons and move. Thats really it. You need more wattage to accelerate more water to beat the equilibrium of the body….like a microwave oven…

bertgoz

Right, no hazard at all. Could you explain me then why all wifi standards (AC included i.e. 5.7Ghz band) have a transmit power cap at 20dBm?

adamrussell

I believe the cap is so one device does not interfere with other devices, and possibly with radio transmissions – same reason CB radios have a power cap. You can transmit as much power as you want safely just so long as it is at a frequency that the body is not apt to absorb.

bertgoz

Interference is a thing (which btw how legacy 5.7GHz wifi devices will operate or even survive in an environment with this level of signals?) but also health hazards are behind power limits.

adamrussell

“which btw how legacy 5.7GHz wifi devices will operate or even survive in an environment with this level of signals?”

They have not stated what frequency would be used. If it is distant enough in frequency then there is no interference. Same with health hazards. If the frequency is no where near the f that the human body (water, calcium, etc) is wont to absorb, then there is no problem.

bertgoz

From their website:
“…scalable power via the same radio bands as a Wi-Fi
router”

And I remember reading somewhere that they were actually using the 5.7GHz band

http://www.funstufftosee.com/ Dozerman

I think the radio interference issues could be fixed with the waveforming tech, at least for other devices in the area. The device being charged might be a different story, unless the charger doubles as a wifi router (sort of like those routers that let you send your internet through your home’s AC power), in which case everybody wins!

Urszula Koczyńska

I was sincerely waiting for this to happen! Imagine that you have the phone always charged! Coool… What if that would be so cheap, the cities would buy such energy for their citizens. You could for example charge your phone standing on the street. Wow. sprzetydomowe.com.pl

http://www.ultimatexbmc.com/ Ultimatexbmc.com

I wonder if cars could be charged using this method over a solar road?

Jayaram Prabhu

i hope you guys did google “wireless power health hazards”

adamrussell

Be nice if we could actually power stuff without ac cords.

Mario A. Razo

It’s really nice, but what could this thing not pose any health threats to the people that is using it? More research is needed for this thing to be licensed, but I guess this is a great leap in our technology and usage of electricity. I’ll admit that I was really amazed but again we don’t what could the consequences be..

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